While Harwood of CNBC used a recent Wall Street Journal poll to dismiss Paul's candidacy, noting his favorability was under Hillary's he neglected an ever crucial result:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/wsjnbcpoll20071108.pdf
If you go to page 12 you'll see the poll he was apparently talking about but what he didn't tell you were these exact results:
People with a very positive view of Paul - 3%
People with a somewhat positive view of Paul - 8%
People with a neutral view of Paul - 19%
People with a somewhat negative view of Paul - 6%
People with a very negative view of Paul -5%
People who don't know his name or aren't sure - 59%
That's a whole 78% who have no real opinion on him.
It's also neglected that these results come simply from self-identified Republicans and only half of other respondents. This likely excludes self-identified Democrats.
Not to mention while the polls say only 4% of those who said they were Republicans or self-identified non-Democrats who were going to vote in the Republican Primaries said they would vote for Paul, the fact 11% have some positive view of him can't simply be ignored, and certainly not such a large number who obviously don't really know him.
This doesn't indicate Paul has very little support. In fact, this reflects well on Paul as his support is split fairly evenly and he a lot of room for growth compared to Romney who actually has 29% who view him negatively and 22% who view him positively.
It's also important when viewing this poll to note the trends among respondents.
Thompson has gone from a high of 28% to 23% favorability. Romney hasn't lost much of his favorability, but his unfavorability has increased by 4%. McCain and Giuliani have also been on a consistent downward trend with McCain going from a high of 43% early on to a current low of 35% favorability. Giuliani has fallen from a substantial 58% to 43%. While still leading he is currently viewed unfavorably by 31%, above every other candidate. Huckabee and Paul are the only ones seeing an increase in their favorability.
In the primary polls the numbers have been more consistent with the only serious loss being for Fred Thompson, going from 23% to 15%, a loss of 8 points. All other candidates have grown by 1 to 3%. However one other significant numbers is the 7% who are unsure. When one consider this figure the winner of the race is thrown further into doubt when one considers the margin of error and the amount who are not sure. Those numbers together make a difference of 9.5%.
All the numbers considered, and the fact the primary poll excludes self-identified Democrats, the idea that this poll could be used to dismiss Ron Paul is ridiculous.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/wsjnbcpoll20071108.pdf
If you go to page 12 you'll see the poll he was apparently talking about but what he didn't tell you were these exact results:
People with a very positive view of Paul - 3%
People with a somewhat positive view of Paul - 8%
People with a neutral view of Paul - 19%
People with a somewhat negative view of Paul - 6%
People with a very negative view of Paul -5%
People who don't know his name or aren't sure - 59%
That's a whole 78% who have no real opinion on him.
It's also neglected that these results come simply from self-identified Republicans and only half of other respondents. This likely excludes self-identified Democrats.
Not to mention while the polls say only 4% of those who said they were Republicans or self-identified non-Democrats who were going to vote in the Republican Primaries said they would vote for Paul, the fact 11% have some positive view of him can't simply be ignored, and certainly not such a large number who obviously don't really know him.
This doesn't indicate Paul has very little support. In fact, this reflects well on Paul as his support is split fairly evenly and he a lot of room for growth compared to Romney who actually has 29% who view him negatively and 22% who view him positively.
It's also important when viewing this poll to note the trends among respondents.
Thompson has gone from a high of 28% to 23% favorability. Romney hasn't lost much of his favorability, but his unfavorability has increased by 4%. McCain and Giuliani have also been on a consistent downward trend with McCain going from a high of 43% early on to a current low of 35% favorability. Giuliani has fallen from a substantial 58% to 43%. While still leading he is currently viewed unfavorably by 31%, above every other candidate. Huckabee and Paul are the only ones seeing an increase in their favorability.
In the primary polls the numbers have been more consistent with the only serious loss being for Fred Thompson, going from 23% to 15%, a loss of 8 points. All other candidates have grown by 1 to 3%. However one other significant numbers is the 7% who are unsure. When one consider this figure the winner of the race is thrown further into doubt when one considers the margin of error and the amount who are not sure. Those numbers together make a difference of 9.5%.
All the numbers considered, and the fact the primary poll excludes self-identified Democrats, the idea that this poll could be used to dismiss Ron Paul is ridiculous.
